_DIVINING._
There is another class of superstitions which have prevailed from ages
the most remote to the present day, although now they are dying out--at
least, they are not now employed to determine such important matters as
they once were. I refer to the practice of divining, or casting lots. In
early times such practices were regarded as a direct appeal to God. From
the Old and New Testaments we learn that these practices were resorted
to by the Jews; but in modern times, and among Western nations, the lot
was regarded as an appeal to the devil as much as to God. I have known
people object to the lot as a sinful practice; but, at the same time,
they were in the constant habit of directing their own course by such an
appeal, as, for instance, when they were about to travel on some
important business, they would fix that, if certain events happened,
they would regard such as a good omen from God, and would accordingly
undertake their journey; but if not, they would regard the
non-occurrence as an unfavourable omen, and defer their journey, in
submission, as they supposed, to the will of God. In modern times, the
practice of casting lots to determine legal or other important questions
has been abandoned by civilized nations; but the practice still exists
in less civilized communities, and is employed to determine such serious
matters as involve questions of life or death, and it still survives
among us in trivial matters, as games.
In my young days, a process of divining, allied to casting lots, was
resorted to by young women in order to discover a thief, or to ascertain
whether a young man who was courting one of them was in earnest, and
would in the future become that girl's husband. The process was called
the Bible and key trial, and the formula was as follows:--A key and
Bible were procured, the key being so much longer than the Bible that,
when placed between the leaves, the head and handle would project. If
the enquiry was about the good faith of a sweetheart, the key was placed
in Ruth i. 16, on the words, "Entreat me not to leave thee: where thou
goest I will go," etc. The Bible was then closed, and tied round with
tape. Two neutral persons, sitting opposite each other, held out the
forefingers of their right hands, and the person who was consulting the
oracle suspended the Bible between their two hands, resting the
projecting parts of the key on the outstretched forefingers. No one
spoke except the enquirer, and she, as she placed the key and Bible in
position, repeated slowly the whole passage, "Entreat me not to leave
thee," John or James, or whatever the name of the youth was, "for where
thou goest I will go," etc. If the key and Bible turned and fell off the
fingers, the answer was favourable; and generally by the time the whole
passage was repeated this was the result, provided the parties holding
up the key and Bible were firm and steady. For the detection of a thief,
the formula was the same, with only this difference, that the key was
put into the Bible at the fiftieth Psalm, and the enquirer named the
suspected thief, and then repeated the eighteenth verse of that Psalm,
"When thou sawest a thief then thou consentest with him," etc. If the
Bible turned round and fell, it was held to be proof that the person
named was the thief. This method of divining was not frequently
practised, not through want of faith in its efficacy, but through
superstitious terror, for the movement of the key was regarded as
evidence that some unseen dread power was present, and so overpowering
occasionally was the impression produced that the young woman who was
chief actor in the scene fainted. The parties holding the key and Bible
were generally old women, whose faith in the ordeal was perfect, and
who, removed by their age from the intenser sympathies of youth, could
therefore hold their hands with steadier nerve. It is only when firm
hands hold it that the turning takes place, for this phenomenon depends
upon the regular and steady pulsations in the fingers, and when held
steadily the ordeal never fails.
There were various other methods for divining or consulting fate or
deity. M'Tagart refers to a practice of divining by the staff. When a
pilgrim at any time got bewildered, he would poise his staff
perpendicularly, and there leave it to fall of itself; and in whatever
direction it fell, that was the road he would take, believing himself
supernaturally directed. Townsmen when they wished to go on a pleasure
excursion to the country, and careless or unsettled which way to go,
would apply to this form of lot. In the old song of "Jock Burnie" there
occurs the following verse:--
"En' on en' he poised his rung, then
Watch'd the airt its head did fa',
Whilk was east, he lapt and sung then,
For there his dear bade, Meg Macraw."
This practice was common with boys in the country fifty years ago, both
for determining where to go for pleasure, or if in a game one of their
number had hidden, and could not be found, as a last resort the stick
was poised, and in whatever direction the stick fell, search was renewed
in that direction.
Such things as these seem trifling, and it would seem folly to treat
them seriously; but they were not always trifling matters. Some of our
Biblical scholars say that it was to this kind of divining that the
prophet Hosea referred when he said, "Their staff declareth unto them,"
and at the present day there are nations who practice such methods for
determining important affairs of life.
The New Zealand sorcerers use sticks for divining, which they throw into
the air, and come to their decisions by observing in which direction
these sticks fall. Even in such matters as sickness or bodily injury,
the direction in which the falling sticks lie, or it may be a certain
stick in the group, directs the way to a physician. In ancient times the
Magian form of divining was by staves or sticks. The diviner carried
with him a bundle of willow wands, and when about to divine he untied
the bundle and laid the wands upon the ground; then he gathered them and
threw them from him, repeating certain words as if consulting some
divinity. The wands were of different lengths, and their numbers varied
from three to nine, but only the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 belonged to
heaven, the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 belonged to earth. The Chinese
divine after this fashion at the present day. From such ideas has
doubtless arisen the saying that there is luck in odd numbers, a belief
which, after a fashion, still prevails.
The virtue and mysterious power of the divining rod is still believed by
many, and has frequently been resorted to during this century for the
purpose of discovering water springs and metallic veins. The diviner
takes a willow wand with a forked end: the forked points are held in his
two hands, the other end pointing horizontally in front of him, and as
he walks slowly over a field he watches the movements of the rod. When
it bends towards the earth, as if apparently strongly attracted thereto,
he feels certain he is passing over a spring or metallic vein. But the
phenomenon, it is believed, will not take place with every one who may
try it, there being only certain parties, mediums as we would name them
in these days, who have the gift of operating successfully; and such
parties obtained great fame in countries and districts where water was
scarce, as they were able to point out the exact spots where wells
should be dug, and also in such counties as Cornwall, where they could
point out the spots where a mine could profitably be sunk. Again and
again within these few years have warm controversies been carried on in
public papers on the question of the reality of the virtue and power of
the _dousing rod_ for discovering minerals or mineral veins. Some have
argued that a hazel rod is as perfect as a willow rod, and have adduced
instances of its successful application.
There was another form of divining essentially an appeal to the lot, in
which a stick was used, and which was frequently employed to determine
matters of considerable importance. Boys resorted to it in their games
in order to determine between two parties, to settle for example which
side should take a certain part in a game, or which of two lads, leaders
in a game, should have the first choice of associates. A long stick was
thrown into the air and caught by one of the parties, then each
alternately grasped it hand over hand, and he who got the last hold was
the successful party. He might not have sufficient length of stick to
fill his whole hand, but if by closing his hand upon the end projecting
from his opponent's hand, he could support the weight of the stick, this
was enough.
The various methods of divining which are generally regarded as modern
inventions, such as the many forms of divining by cards, the reading of
the future from the position of the leaves of tea in a tea-cup, etc., we
will pass by without comment, only remarking that the prevalence among
us still of such superstitious notions shows that men, notwithstanding
our boasted civilisation, are still open to believe in mysteries which,
to common sense, are incredible, without exhibiting the slightest trace
of scepticism, and without taking any trouble to investigate the truth
of the pretensions, contenting themselves with a saying I have often
heard--"Wonderful things were done of old which we cannot understand,
and God's hand is not yet shortened. He can do now what He did then."
And so they save themselves trouble of reasoning, a process which, to
the majority, is disagreeable.